The book's title points directly to the intended audience - those who want
to create a large subscriber audience to their video creations on the
social networking site, Youtube. But I guess I'm not part of that
audience. I actually think social networking wastes a lot of time that
could be more productive socializing directly with people (or doing
anything else, for that matter). Nevertheless, that's a lifestyle
judgment, and my purpose is to review a book, not get on a soap box.
So, you may ask, just why did I elect to read this book? Two reasons. One
was to better understand the commercial possibilities of the social
networking medium, and the other was to learn something I can apply to
doing my own web videos. Normally, I would get professionals to do what
they do best, but this time there's little budget, and they still need to
get done. My only fear is that my results will be similar to those of all
the people who suddenly flooded my environment with home made newsletters
when such software became available. Let me tell you, it takes more than a
program to make newsletters and videos - creativity, knowledge, and
experience come to mind.
And the authors seem to have these things in fair measure. There is a good
amount of useful information made available, and there are links to much
more, even for my more narrow interests. However, I still felt that, for
what I wanted, it was still lacking. There seems to be more weight given
to the less technical information, such as how the community works,
building an audience following, cheating the system, and other, related
social networking sites.
The book is quite readable, and I found that I have more in common with
the authors than I expected, especially given our differing opinions on
Youtube, itself. My main critique, as usual, has to do with the editing.
The one thing that pops out are the diagrams indicating time proportions
for storylines, and they are obviously not proportional at all.
Bottom line: If it is your goal to be famous on Youtube, this book may be
just the ticket to help you get there, or show you why you won't.
Also reviewed at http://elug.ca/reviews/youtube_an_insiders_guide.shtml (http://elug.ca/reviews/youtube_an_insiders_guide.shtml)
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